Posts Tagged ‘logistics’

Containerization revolutionized the maritime freight transportation industry more than 50 years ago; those ubiquitous 20- and 40-foot steel intermodal boxes seen in ports and on truck and rail chassis have made cargo handling faster, easier, safer and more efficient.

The next revolutionary phase of containerization might well reside in the vertical folding container from Staxxon Technologies, a clever solution to the old trade imbalance problem of moving and repositioning empty containers from where the freight isn’t to where the freight is. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s not necessarily an either/or proposition. Logistics managers trying to optimize supply chains for sustainability and emissions reductions face a tough question: how to implement those goals without breaking the bank.

The conventional thinking is that there’s always tradeoff: A transport company can reduce its CO2 emissions along a supply chain, but at a higher operating cost. Often much higher.

Findings released last month during a webinar sponsored by Finished Vehicle Logistics magazine suggest that in certain cases at least the best of both worlds is possible. Read the rest of this entry »

Global logistics giant DHL is launching a coordinated lighting retrofit program at its Global Forwarding unit warehousing and distribution facilities in the Americas region, part of an “interim target” of reaching a 5 percent improvement in carbon efficiency by the end of year.

The program initially will be rolled out in the U.S. before expanding to Canada and Mexico, the company said.

As part of parent Deutsche Post DHL and its GoGreen climate protection program, which debuted in North America last year, DHL Global Forwarding’s goal is to reduce its carbon footprint by 30 percent by 2020.

DHL’s GoGreen climate change program has reached North America’s shores, but not the U.S. A year after the GoGreen launch in Europe the German package express delivery and logistics has made it available in Canada.

DHL Express Canada’s GoGreen service is described by the company as a “carbon-neutral” shipping option that “enables Canadian businesses of all sizes to ship their goods internationally without leaving an environmental footprint.”

DHL adds that the value-added service that makes use of carbon offsets and low emission transporation technologies provides companies with a seamless, eco-friendly friendly shipping option; it’s available from anywhere in Canada to more than 220 countries around the world.

Greening the supply chain has been a buzz-phrase in the logistics and transportation sectors for some time now. The idea is that by creating sustainable supply chains long-term cost savings, environmental benefits and greater reliability will follow.
It turns out that it’s somewhat more complicated, falling squarely into the “easier-said-than-done” and “window-dressing” categories. That’s because manufacturer supply chains and the rise of global outsourcing have made their chains longer, increasingly complex and difficult to monitor along each link, from supplier to manufacturer to transport, warehousing and distribution.
Now the global recession is weakening green chain links even further, according to Accenture, the global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing firm.
Its recent research indicates that the greening the supply chain is falling prey to the necessity of maintaining revenue and profits. An Accenture survey of 250 supply chain executives found that only 10% of companies even track and model their carbon footprints and follow up with successful sustainability initiatives.
And only 20% of the top, so-called best-in-class supply chains as defined by Accenture are more likely to model their carbon footprints and sustainability projects than other supply chains. Just 9% of those not-as-best-in-class “others” are likely to be involved in that activity.
The study also found that 37% of those surveyed don’t have a clue about the level of emissions in their supply chain network. At least those responding are doing a better job at greening their warehouses, with 86% of them recycling and using natural light, lighting management systems and energy-efficient bulbs.
Accenture said 38% of supply chains have undertaken at least one green initiative in their transport fleet, such as streamlining vehicle design, adopting green fuels and vehicles with hybrid engines.
“The study findings demonstrate that the vast majority of organizations are taking steps to reduce carbon emissions,” said Jonathan Wright, senior executive in Accenture’s Supply Chain Management practice. “However, most are implementing carbon-reduction solutions without understanding their carbon footprint and are therefore unable to measure the real impact those solutions are having on their emissions.”
The logistics industry loves to survey and benchmark itself and spends a lot of time and energy in these activities each year. Exercising a more comprehensive and coordinated approach to measuring emissions and saving energy across entire supply chains would be time better spent and is long past due. And in the long run it will save their bottoms, er, bottom lines.